Providing education for 150 children in Armenia

This project report is a submission to GlobalGiving's 2017 Fail Forward Contest, where organizations are asked to share a story of when they tried something new that didn't go as planned and how they learned from it. Enjoy!

 Dear donors, partners,

“A failure is not always a mistake. It may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.”- B.F. Skinner

This special report gives us the best opportunity to share with you those failures by learning which we become stronger and more stable. Some people fail in some period of their work, though they come across with difficulty when understanding the basics of their occurrence. That is an essential and important circumstance which must be paid attention to and we should be able to make right conclusions. In order to be able to overcome the obstacles, we need to find new and effective ways which will lead to success.

If we watch we'll see that the carrier of many successful people started with failures. And without which it is impossible to imagine a progress in the work that you are involved in. Our organization highlights the acceptance of the failures, without which it is impossible to imagine an innovation or growth.

Sometimes people are ashamed to confess their failures but by learning through failures we create ways to success.

Our organization investing all the abilities and experience implements special courses and training modules in the rural regions and communities of Armenia and encourages the children to obtain their missed knowledge and which is the most important, encourages them not to get exploited. As the beneficiaries of this project are mostly schoolchildren we use such methods those would help them to understand the provided knowledge fast and easily. In this process, we use the methods of non-formal education with interactive games. Though sometimes there are activities or methods which fail. First of all, we do some studies, inquires among our direct and indirect beneficiaries who give us a great opportunity to explore and estimate their needs. Find new solutions by listening to them. It's important to mention that we can estimate the effectiveness of the project by comparing the assessment questionnaires before and after the conduction of the project. Besides these all, we are now ready to separate those points, which failed and how we are going to use this experience to improve our work. 

Point number one: We conduct special educational training courses for the children, which give them to complete the missed knowledge both in natural sciences and humanitarian subjects. Though when the training courses are heavy and overloaded, they sometimes feel tiredness and cannot continue their active participation. We offer the following solution for this failure.

What is the offered solution?

Key N1: From this experience, we learned that it's necessary to include refreshing and activating games in the training course and make the project more effective and pleasant. After coming across with this problem we also offer to give them home-tasks so they will choose an interesting topic and share it with their friends, describe what they have read and what they have studied. This is one of the best means to see them more vigorous and motivated.

Point number two:  Help the children to work freely in a team and express their ideas and suggestions. As we provide basic education to children marginalized from society it is important for us to help them to overcome the psychological problems and difficulties. We have come across with this important problem. There are children which cannot work in a team, show enough patience to listen to the speaker. We offer the following solution for this failure.

What is the offered solution?

Key N2: In order to be able to correct this problem we are planning to include psychologists, special teachers who would help them to overcome those difficulties and get integrated into the society freely.

Point number three:  Plan the training courses with our teaching staff. At the beginning of the implementation of the project, we had the following failure; the trainers could not provide the children the educational material within the estimated time period as they did not possess the methodology of non-formal education. We offer the following solution for this failure.

What's the offered solution?

Key N3: Organize training modules for our regional representatives and the staff directly involved in the project. We have conducted and still carry on conducting those trainings in our organization during which they have an opportunity to share their suggestions, ask their questions and receive exact answers. After this meeting the trainers confess that they can manage their time, resources and of course provide the beneficiaries with comprehensive and interesting materials.

Dear donors,

We hope you will value our honesty as we develop and grow when we are able to acknowledge and accept our failures. We highly value your commitment to this project, which is to give basic knowledge to children marginalized from society and help them not to get exploited.

We hope that you liked this special Report provided us by GlobalGiving.

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Dear donors,

Due to your important role in this project and your donations we carry on conducting non-formal training courses which are supposed to provide basic education to the beneficiaries of the rural marzes’ communities of the Republic of Armenia. It’s essential for us and we’re responsible for sharing with you the achievements we recorded during this period.

Children from the rural communities of our country feel the necessity of participating in such educational courses where they could have an opportunity to complete the missing knowledge and skills. Though being vulnerable and constrained they keep on showing up with suggestions, how they can get out of that situation and appear in the society more confidently. And the key solution to these problems is only the education, for sure. This time also the beneficiaries wanted to pass the interactive section of the basic educational training course in the open air. First of all, they got familiar with those topics which our trainers had prepared.

The main destination was to improve their general educational status both in subjects in humanities and natural sciences and also give them an opportunity to show up in a team, as by listening to their peers they simply get encouraged. Our trainers presented the beneficiaries the role and the importance of education, as well as helped them to know their rights and responsibilities in the nearest future so they wouldn’t get exploited in the labor market. This is one of the main purposes of this project.  The other section of the meeting was dedicated to Armenia. The children were telling about Armenian history and culture. During this section, they had an opportunity to image those cultural and historical values which exist in their countries. Then present their works to their friends and the project coordinating team. This is the best way for them to develop their own opinions, thoughts, and ideas.

Dear donors, partners, we highly value your commitment to this project. There are a noticeable growth and progress amongst our target group members, which can confirm our periodic surveys and quizzes for checking their knowledge. At the end of each meeting, our team conducts surveys which are directly related to the provided material. This, in its turn, gives us an opportunity to increase the effectiveness of the project also in other communities.

We appreciate that you support the formation of an educated society in Armenia.

We present you Anahit’s short story and speech addressed to donors which she presented during the meeting.

Hello, I’m Anahit. I’m very happy to be involved in this project. I like to be in this environment where I can complete the knowledge that I have missed. Today I gained new valuable knowledge. Particularly I’d like to separate the section of the course related to Armenia. I have painted the symbols, the historical and picturesque sights of my country. I appreciate all the donors and people who try to accomplish our dreams.

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